Missing operating system - Windows XP
I just did a full image backup of a brand new Windows XP install on my
laptop. Backup was to a Lexar flash drive and selected to make it bootable.
No errors reported during backup.
Set the laptop to boot from flash and True Image software ran
fine. I selected to restore the partition image and MBR to the C: drive.
Everything ran OK with no errors reported in the log.
Now when I boot the hard disk the computer reports Missing operating
system. I tried the restore again, but no different. I have no XP disks to
recover the operating system. Now what do I do to get my laptop and
money back?
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If you did a full disk backup to your flash drive, I would try booting to the flash drive and performing the restore again. Be sure not to change the drive letters for the destination, choose the destination and allow the Linux based Rescue Media restore to the letters it chooses. They will be correct when Windows boots up. The restore of the MBR/boot track should be done as you did in the first attempt.
Since you said this is a new install of XP, why do you not have the installation CD? You could possibly use the installation CD to correct the boot issues.
Are you sure you performed a full disk image, and not just a partition image.?
Did you system have more than one partition?
Did you check to make sure your BIOS is set to boot to the hard disk first?
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I have retried the restore and am not changing any drive letters or destinations.
There are two partions on the ACER laptop. I did a full disk image and
both partions show on the backup. I am not sure if the restore
has somehow reversed the partitions. Yes the Bios is set to
boot off the Hard Disk. I tried restoring just the C: partition
and the MBR but still getting the Missing operating system.
I did track a Windows XP SP3 boot disk, but it is not from the
ACER laptop. I've tried FIXMBR and FIXBOOT on the C: drive
but no luck.
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It is possible that the partition on the hard disk that was previously marked as the active partition is now not marked as active.
You can boot to the XP CD and use the Recovery Console to perform many operations, including looking at the disk and its volumes, changing or setting the active volume, etc.
Here is a link to instructions on how to use it from the CD http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307654. It also has instructions on how to install it into Windows XP, but skip over this section. At the Recovery Console command prompt, use "diskpart" to view the volumes on your hard disk and check the "active" status. Additional help on "diskpart" can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300415
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Perform the restore again, selecting the disk mode (all partitions and MBR/track 0) restore before attempting to use the Windows XP Recovery Console and diskpart commands. It is very possible that the first partition on the disk was not the "active" partition, and Acronis may have made it so. This sometimes happens with OEM utility partitions located at the beginning of the hard disk, with the second partition being the OS, and being marked as the "active" partition.
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Went through all the steps of adding a new disk etc...
Instructions were very good. The result however is the
same. Missing operating system
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I am going to reinstall the Acer disks which will bring my computer back to
the original XP without any of my software packages. If I install the True
Image software again can I somehow use this backup to restore all the
windows updates, software packages, data etc that are contained in the
image backup I made?
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I've done many, many restores from backup images, and haven't seen this issue before unless the backup image did not contain ALL of the partitions present on the source disk.
I've seen some issues with an incorrect partition being marked as active, and usually is fairly easy to correct. I'm at a loss as to what to have you try next, maybe some other, more knowledgeable folks, can jump in here.
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You can not restore installed applications or updates. They will have to be restored. You can restore any data you had stored on the system.
After performing the Acer Recovery, be sure to take a look at Windows Disk Management to verify the number of partitions, and how they are located on the drive, as well as which is marked as the "active" partition. This will help greatly in the event of any needed disk image restores created from any disk imaging software application.
One suggestion:
Create a new backup image using the Acronis Rescue Media immediately after the recovery as a baseline backup image in case of problems. The image could be used to re-install the Acer load instead of the Acer Recovery method.
You could even do the image and test the restore first, before getting the Windows updates and installing your apps and customizing Widows for your use.
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I am just looking at the files in on the flash drive
D:\My backups\ACER (C)\ACER (C)_full_b1_s1_v1.tib
D:\My backups\ACER (C)\ACER (C)_full_b1_s1_v2.tib
I am assuming these are the two images for the two partions.
Do both of these get restored during the restore process and in
what order? Could I accidently have restored only one and
messed up the drive? Which one would be the C: partion?
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Based on the file names, this looks like one full backup image split into two volumes, 1 and 2 (probably due to FAT32 format on the Flash drive). Both files make up the backup image, it is just in more than one part due to file size limitations of FAT32 (4GB).
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Thanks all for your help. I will try again when I have more time
to deal with this.
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I just installed the 5 Acer recovery disks to bring the laptop back to
factory. Booting off the hard drive still says Missing operating system.
Everything was working fine until I tried restoring the backup image.
Now what?
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Are you sure the BIOS is set to boot to the Hard Disk in the system?
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Dave,
It is possible that the drive still contains two partitions, one may be a recovery/utility partition on the drive, and the other the OS. When restoring the Acer disks, it may only be restoring the OS partition, ignoring the recovery/utility partition and leaving the wrong partition set to active.
One thing to try is to boot to the Acronis Rescue Disk, and try to boot Windows from the Rescue Disk main menu. If you can boot into Widows this way, open Disk Management, and set the OS partition to active and reboot the system.
If this does not work, you can use the Acronis Rescue Disk tool "Add a new disk" to create an un-allocated MBR layout disk and exit the Acronis Rescue Disk without doing any Acronis restores. Then boot to the Acer Recovery disks, and perform the Acer Recovery to the "blank" drive. This will eliminate the additional non-bootable partition, and allow the Acer Recovery disks to correctly restore Windows XP onto your disk and make it bootable.
Still grasping at straws here, and just trying to get you up and running.
Since you have the Acer Recovery Media, the additional partition that will not be created during the recovery is not needed for normal use of the PC anyway.
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Yes, blowing out all the partion info has allowed the Acer disks to
build a bootable operating system. Tks
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Now that you have a bootable Windows, all may not be lost.
Install 2013 again (you may need to transfer the activation to this new install of Windows), then try and mount the image you have on your flash drive. If you are able to mount it, open up Windows Disk Management (right click on My Computer and select Manage) and then take a screen shot of what you see and post it here.
Depending on what it contains, you might still be able to recover the disk as we might be able to see what went wrong. Also while mounted see if the virtual drive(s) look to contain the correct information.
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When I got "Missing operating system" error on my Dell Windows XP laptop, Windows Boot Genius from http://download.cnet.com/Windows-Boot-Genius/3000-2094_4-75827488.html saved my life! hope it helps more users!
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